May
6
6
Amity And Irony Live Together In Perfect Harmony
Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg:
Obama Democrats Accent Bullying Over Governing
- Blogs lack accuracy: Even as he attacked Michele Bachmann for errors, the author on The New Republic’s Plank blog misspelled her name. Three other such left-leaning blogs are TPM, someone hiking a TPM post, and Matt Yglesias.
‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™
Editor Norir said,
May 6, 2009 at 9:48
What?!! This is shocking!!
Sentimental Cynic said,
May 6, 2009 at 9:54
Um.. this shorter is a completely unfair representation you left out the part about how Joe Biden said FDR said stuff after the stock market crash!!1!
Snarky Dingo said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:00
I’m voting for Mothra.
M. Bouffant said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:03
Sweet Blood of Jesus:
How ’bout what’s been going on post-loss among the ninnies on your side of the aisle, Amity? Any magnanimity there? No, just insane paranoia, projection, & several other things that start w/ “p.”
P. S.: “0:00″ Gavin, it’s Michele, ( ma belle) Bachmann. I know this because I had to look it up an hr. or so back.
Gavin M. said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:05
Thanks! Alas, I lacked accuracy!
owlbear1 said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:08
“Visiting Senior Fellow” at the Council of Foreign Affairs
A Hack’s Hack, if you will…
M. Bouffant said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:08
Oh, are you being extra-clever again? I now see that it was Rep. Batshit’s name that was misspelled, not
SlesShaleShlesAmity’s. Though I imagine Shlaes (Hah!) is sensitive to that sort of thing.M. Bouffant said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:09
Also, go to sleep, or are you practicing for Baby Patrol? Probably better to get sleep while you can.
kingubu said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:15
Ah, yes. Yet another cry of “DECENCY NOW!!!” from from the people who continue to argue that it totally wasn’t torture if they had a doctor standing by with a stopwatch to measure precisely how long to keep the guy’s nuts in a vise.
a different brad said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:25
Am I the only one who thinks Amity Shlaes is a made up name and she’s actually an annoying performance artist?
Yes, I know annoying was redundant in that phrase.
a different brad said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:27
N because Gavin should see this now, instead of later, lemme repost that link to a summary of dijongate, whereupon Obama asked for grey poupon at a burger shack and made the baby Jebus cry or someshit.
D. Aristophanes said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:31
Some people were mean to some other people in positions of power! Will the terrorizing through words of elected officials and syndicated pundits never stop?
What would happen if you wrote a poorly researched book that claimed to debunk the belief that New Deal policies helped end the Great Depression, but all you presented was really stupid anecdotes that did nothing to further your point?
I bet the mean, mean meanies would probably say you were stupid and a recipient of wingnut welfare! Because they’re mean! They’re just big fat big mean fat meanies!
Also, I bet Obama told them to do it! He’s the King of the Meanies! Hey, President Meanie, turn that frown upside down!
ntnlplmbigcdhndbk said,
May 6, 2009 at 10:36
Some commentators are so filled with vitriol that they write books with titles that are clever politically but filled with bile, like The Greedy Hand. Even when editors are involved, as was the case with Shlaes’s book, authors are allowed to bully their readers with “D” grade subtitles that are inaccurate smears. The subtitle of Shlaes’s book And How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy and What to Do About It is based on the lazy premise that bullying readers outranks accuracy. Since this happens to be accurate, it’s a sensitive point. And, and, Hoot-Smalley.
M. Bouffant said,
May 6, 2009 at 11:02
Hoyt-Clagwell.
kiki said,
May 6, 2009 at 11:06
How long have you been waiting for a chance to use that headline? And did you actually weep with joy when one arose? I would have.
a different brad said,
May 6, 2009 at 11:12
Oops. Hadn’t looked at tbogg before gettin all chirpy.
Back on topic, I don’t know whether to love or loathe Shlaes for enabling conservatives to further their psychotic breaks with consensus reality. It makes them easier to beat in elections, but that whole psychotic part of the break is hard to overlook.
Less fear and loathing than fear and laughing.
They’re stupid, but they’re heavily armed.
Smut Clyde who lives at Maison d’Être said,
May 6, 2009 at 11:45
Amity And Irony Live Together In Perfect Harmony
Sodding puritans. It’s not enough for them to give one another such moralistic, edifying first names. No, they have name their houses along similar lines.
ntnlplmbigcdhndbk said,
May 6, 2009 at 11:59
No freaking Djion here: http://www.chickandruths.com/pledge.html
Ted the Slacker said,
May 6, 2009 at 12:13
More fun…
Amity: Years ago, out of a sense of civics, gentle and gentlemanly newspaper editors used to allow a certain honeymoon period post-election.
Hmm, “a sense of civics”…
Civics, civics, sure that means something… Ah yes…
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/civics
civ·ics
n. (used with a sing. verb)
The branch of political science that deals with civic affairs and the rights and duties of citizens.
Must have been a typo by Amity.
Oh look, three sentences later:
Internet scribes are not into civics.
And and and and
Most bloggers lack editors
So alternative shorter Amity:
Obama Democrats are nasty and what is civics exactly?
kiki said,
May 6, 2009 at 12:20
“Wow, people who write on the internet are stupid! Glad I’m not one of them! Follow my Tweets!”
MS said,
May 6, 2009 at 12:43
Wow, everyone engages in a little projection from time to time. It’s only human. But these people have raised it to a form of high art. They are creating the projection equivalent of a Bach double fugue.
Grace Nearing said,
May 6, 2009 at 12:52
What is surprising is that the attacks are continuing after an election.
No, what is surprising is that anyone familiar with contemporary American politics would make that statement and think that no one familiar with contemporary American politics would blink twice and think: what an idiot.
Doghouse Riley said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:00
No actual historian of the New Deal–even one whose politics lie to the right of the Hohenzollerns–could possibly imagine that incivility today rises to the level of the remarkable.
Shit, I hope I didn’t just blow her cover.
You Cannot Escape the Truth said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:00
[homophobic rant mixed with homoerotic imagery]
N__B said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:05
Sodding puritans. It’s not enough for them to give one another such moralistic, edifying first names.
I long for the good old days when they gave their children utilitarian names, like “Preserved Fish.”
Oh wait, is that how Gavin misspelled “Michele Bachmann”?
Ted the Slacker said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:09
Another Bachmann-grade nugget:
Amity: …the importance of low taxes and reasonable regulation. Only these permit strong growth…
Only these, you hear me! How else will we ever build another house of cards?
The Tragically Flip said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:17
Ah “reasonable” regulation – would that be like having the office of thrift supervision responsible for AIGFP and their multi-trillion dollar no limit game of international poker?
Or maybe it is Phil Gramm writing a law that forbids regulators from regulating CDS’.
Or how about the pinnacle of right wing market stupidity, espoused in the phrase “voluntary regulation”
N__B said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:21
“voluntary regulation”
That always ends the same way: someone is driving to the basket and gets an elbow in the face.
El Cid said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:36
As was pointed out on the holy archives of Balloon Juice, what Shlaes is crying about is that the right cannot as easily get away with its lies anymore.
Bachmann grabbed the national spotlight in order to babble utter nonsense and flat out lies about FDR and the New Deal and “Hoot Smalley”, in ways that any grownup could see were more serious than Biden saying that FDR went on television instead of radio.
But then, I learned from an advertised scholar on Atlass & Juggs that them big-head so-called ’scientists’ ignore all the evidence that mankind has been on the earth for billions of years and that the Earth is only several thousands of years old.
El Cid said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:37
Or maybe it’s having Phil Gramm’s wife running the Commodity Futures board at the time when ENRON was pronounced to be the bees’ knees.
El Cid said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:41
More right wing analysticizing:
“Now, look here: I’ve got a guy with the napkin thing about cutting taxes on the rich, and then we can take catch phrases from the economist guy and pretend he’s doing nothing but muttering about ’supply side’. It’ll be a keen steal, our buddies’ll get billions more than they would have.”
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:42
I recall a nice example of that. Ari Fleischer was still repeating the missing w keys story weeks after this report.
Ted the Slacker said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:45
I’m not done bullying.
Here’s an Amity nugget from yesteryear.
Regulation [...] begets market volatility.
The South Sea bubble, Tulip Mania, Shenandoah et al, DotCom hysteria, unregulated Subprime punting… fucking regulation did it, that’s what.
J.D. Rhoades said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:49
In the past, politicians and policy thinkers tended to be magnanimous in victory.
Uh, excuse me? Anyone remember the gloating Rethuglican war dances after the 2004 election? Anyone remember “it’s time to curb-stomp the bastards”? If Amity didn’t stand up and protest then, she can sit right the fuck down now.
comsympinko said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:52
She looks like a turtle.
Just look at her: appropriate neck…green shell…gaping, toothless maw…
I think once read somewhere that the loggerhead turtle has the smallest brain mass:total mass ratio of any vertebrate.
Move over loggerheads. There’s a new sheriff in Stupidtown.
El Cid said,
May 6, 2009 at 13:58
No. This never happened. Republicans are sober and wise in victory. They are gracious to their opponents. They are careful to bring everyone together, and not vainly crow about having gained a “mandate” or about their “political capital”.
In fact, one can hardly distinguish Karl Rove from Iron Eyes Cody in the serious with which they looked upon the awesome responsibilities they were assuming, with such fairness and grace.
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:00
I suppose Amity could try to wriggle her way out of the “Clintons trashed the White House” example by explaining that Bush didn’t actually win an election in 2000.
Somehow this doesn’t help her case.
Jennifer said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:09
In the past, politicians and policy thinkers tended to be magnanimous in victory. They and their friends focused, post-victory, on policy and strategy — not on trashing individuals.
Shhhh. We don’t want Sore/Loserman to find out about this.
LittlePig said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:12
The Soviet Union was big on historical revisionism.
Republicans have now raised the same to a high art.
Therefore, by ad Pantloadio Doughsurdem, the Soviet Union was not only right wing, but, in fact, Republican.
Lady Arky said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:17
Alternate even shorter Amityville Horror: Waaah! The dirty fucking commie hippies led by that uppity Negro won’t shut up!
Lunch Lady said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:20
Those extra freedom fries are going to cost you!
Pere Ubu said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:33
Uh, excuse me? Anyone remember the gloating Rethuglican war dances after the 2004 election? Anyone remember “it’s time to curb-stomp the bastards”?
Remember how “magnanimous” the Repug Congress was in 1995? When they shut down the fucking Government with their whiny-ass tittie-baby routine?
Also – is that pic at the top there a shot just before her jaw unhinged and her second set of fangs shot out?
Pere Ubu said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:35
She looks like a turtle.
Oh, let’s not insult the turkles, now.
Johnny Pez said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:36
In a sane world, Amity Shlaes would be shown the same respect as those people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.
TortureIsUnAmerican said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:37
Amity And Irony Live Together In Perfect Harmony
Decided not to go with Amityville Horror then?
Lunch Lady said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:39
Decided not to go with Amityville Horror then?
Try the tuna surprise.
Pere Ubu said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:41
Try the tuna surprise.
Is there Dijon mustard in that?
LittlePig said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:42
In a sane world, Amity Shlaes would be shown the same respect as those people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.
She’s worse, I would say. At least the faked moon landing folks had claims that were falsifiable (get big telescope, look at landing sites). Amity is selling anti-Tiger rocks. Even God damn Geraldo Rivera couldn’t make a show out of that.
El Cid said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:43
STOP IT!!! The message from our establishment is that all this nasty partisanship has only existed since the 2006 elections. Before that America Worked Together for the Good of the Nation. Republicans have never, ever done anything other than mainstream, bipartisan outreach, and the Clinton impeachment was done by the French, anyway.
Ted the Slacker said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:43
In a sane world, Amity Shlaes would be shown the same respect as those people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.
That’s why Sadly No exists. To offer a vision of sane world.
Pere Ubu said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:48
Republicans have never, ever done anything other than mainstream, bipartisan outreach
So Cheney was just making Sen. Leahy a coy offer, then, eh?
Righteous Bubba said,
May 6, 2009 at 14:59
Yes! Amity gets it! Finally the scales have…er…okay then. Egregious typo alert!
comsympinko said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:03
Smut Clyde–
Thanks for the ChChCh tips. The beer in NZ is WAY better than here in Oz. Real ale pubs are truly the shiznit foshizzle, and Harrington’s is good stuff.
Three Boys is also very good.
Next time you’re there, might I recomment Cookai Japanese restaurant on Cashel St? Some truly scary izakaya bits as well as the more mainstream fare for the faint of heart–among the best we’ve had, and we’ve been to Tokyo and Osaka.
Cheers!
LittlePig said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:11
Why certainly. Michelle Malkin is so sweet, Pam Geller is so charming and five feet o’ fury is s obsequious that are the very archetypes of bipartisanship and equanimity.
Not at all like the penising, queefing and cobaggering of the Left.
comsympinko said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:19
“Regulation [...] begets market volatility.”
Al. Tmie. Sutpid.
First and foremost, “Regulation” is not Yahweh or Noah, so I very much doubt it has begotten anything. Let’s leave the biblical out of this, “Amity.”
Which, as you know, means “friendship.” As in, “eaten by the friendly giant shark of ignorance.”
Second…I honestly don’t even know where to go.
Federal regulators sticking their bureaucratic noses up the asses of crooked plutocrats is so obviously not the cause of the financial criminal malfeasance that leads to roller coaster markets–it’s difficult to know how to rebut something so incredibly wrong.
Loggerhead turtle>>>Amity. It’s so incredibly sad.
g said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:24
She’s actually defending Michele Bachmann’s ravings. I never thought I would actually see that happen.
R. Porrofatto said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:36
Historian Jonah Goldberg doesn’t have a degree in history.
Economist Larry Kudlow doesn’t have a degree in economics.
Economic historian Amity Shlaes doesn’t have a degree in economics or history.
I think they’re taking this home-schooling thing a bit too far.
J Neo Marvin said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:51
To better understand today’s Republicans, we need a documentary in the same format as “Memento”, running backwards in time with all the central characters suffering from perpetual amnesia.
Then, and only then, this shit might finally make some sense.
g said,
May 6, 2009 at 15:58
Over at another blog, I just was referred to an early Shlaes post from October. She apparently thinks Joe the Plumber is the second coming of St. Ronnie.
actor212 said,
May 6, 2009 at 16:03
She’s actually defending Michele Bachmann’s ravings. I never thought I would actually see that happen.
What did you expect from someone who can’t even spell “Shales” properly?
cowalker said,
May 6, 2009 at 16:05
I, for one, have longed to engage in a debate over the propriety of wearing denim for every occasion. I’m sure it would be profitable for George and me to offer our feelings about jeans as arguments and to recommend movie stars who best showcase our preferred type of clothing. The tough job will be judging who won that debate.
ignatov said,
May 6, 2009 at 16:12
Or Cindy Sheehan, the Dixie Chicks, Bill Maher, Ward Churchill, Sean Penn, Valerie Plame, et al.
Oh, the magnanimity!
Anonymous said,
May 6, 2009 at 16:37
In the past, politicians and policy thinkers tended to be magnanimous in victory, unlike these uncivil apes of today who spent the weeks following the 2008 election lined up outside the Naval Observatory cursing and screaming, “Get out of Biden’s house!”
My heart bled for “Dick” Cheney … o tempore, o mores …
comsympinko said,
May 6, 2009 at 16:48
“I, for one, have longed to engage in a debate over the propriety of wearing denim for every occasion.”
Jeans. Are. Satan’s. Evil. Leggings.
Don’t you fucking get it?
George Will is the modern-day Jeebus.
You must reject the world’s most common and comfortable Capitalist fabric fashioned into the world’s most common and comfortable Capitalist shape for common and comfortable Capitalist human legs for common and comfortable Capitalist distribution which cannot possibly be anything but Satan’s plan to make us all at ease with our current Commie-Comfortable-Capitalist fabric and shape milieu that can only lead to the horrific apocalypse of Satan’s Indigo Plan to kill off everybody who rejects George-Will-Jeebus’ SuperUltraCapitalist plan in this manner.
Jeans=Satan=Dead Kittens=George Will.
And the cycle begins anew…
Lesley said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:01
any relation to Kathity Shlaidle?
tigrismus said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:06
They are creating the projection equivalent of a Bach double fugue.
Well, dissociative and retrograde, anyway.
Mr. Wonderful said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:15
“Visiting Senior Fellow” at the Council of Foreign Affairs
I’m sure she is, but I don’t care about her personal life, or what his name is.
comsympinko said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:16
Atheist hilarity!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbnciQYMiM
D. Aristophanes said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:24
Shamity amity … huh … shamity amity lamity ding dong … baby … you put the ooh mou mou …. oh oh oh oh … back into my crazy, Shlaes-y
That is why … (that is why) … Shlaes is my sugar diddy dip … yeah
actor212 said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:26
OTIS! MAH MAN!
Ari Fleischer said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:32
STOP IT!!! The message from our establishment is that all this nasty partisanship has only existed since the 2006 elections.
That is correct. You DFHs had better watch what you say, watch what you do…
(and ellipsisize ominously…)
The Goddamn Batman Would Be Perturbed If Catwoman Went To Bat For Harley Quinn said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:44
It’s always more than a little sad when Mousy Smart Girl goes to bat for Stupid Popular Girl. Amity, she still won’t get boyfriend’s wingman to take you to the prom.
Djur said,
May 6, 2009 at 17:48
I’m having trouble understanding how saying Bachmann’s history is from another planet, when that history is demonstrably incorrect based on undisputed facts, is “ad hominem.”
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist said,
May 6, 2009 at 18:03
I’m having trouble understanding how saying Bachmann’s history is from another planet, when that history is demonstrably incorrect based on undisputed facts, is “ad hominem.”
Easy – the rightards’ grasp of rhetorical principles is just as crappy as their grasp of history.
PeeJ said,
May 6, 2009 at 18:21
Not to be pissy or anything but jeez, Gav.
JM said,
May 6, 2009 at 18:38
Wow, she doesn’t even mention what George Will lied about, she just paints him as a victim.
Oh, that’s right. She’s one of those conservatives. Nevermind.
Rusty Shackleford said,
May 6, 2009 at 19:16
Are the Dems frittering away their time trashing their political opponents, or are they tirelessly working to establish a socialist dystopia here in the USSA?
JUST TELL US WHICH LIE TO BELIEVE
N.C. said,
May 6, 2009 at 19:22
They’re tirelessly working to establish a socialist dystopia by wasting their time trashing their political opponents, of course. It’s all part of the plan.
zombie rotten mcdonald said,
May 6, 2009 at 19:52
After watching the Dems cave, time after time, over the last decade or so, I would NEVER have suspected them of being so clever and manipulative.
Well played, you spineless freaks.
Enraged Bull Limpet said,
May 6, 2009 at 19:56
My crystal ball shows years of flailing, incoherent lefty-bashing in our immediate future: enmity and augury in perfect cognitive dissonance.
MrToad said,
May 6, 2009 at 20:01
MS said: “..these people have raised it to a form of high art. They are creating the projection equivalent of a Bach double fugue.”
Oh, please; let’s not get offensive here. How about the projection equivalent of a PDQ Bach ‘Fugue in C minor for chamber calliope’?
thetragicsongwildfire said,
May 6, 2009 at 23:08
Nah, It’s more like the projection equivalent of a track from The Short-Tempered Clavier and other dysfunctional works by P.D.Q. Bach.
Big Bad Bald Bastard said,
May 7, 2009 at 0:11
Obama asked for grey poupon at a burger shack and made the baby Jebus cry or someshit.
Watching that video, this immediately popped into my mind.
MS said,
May 7, 2009 at 0:54
I certainly didn’t mean to imply that their projection was AESTHETICALLY equivalent to a Bach double fugue, just in the awesome technique and ambition.
P.D.Q Bach is a pretty good analogy aesthetically, except, of course, that Peter Schickele is actually trying to be funny and the music is full of in-jokes.
Not that you don’t know that, of course…
Bobby Burster said,
May 7, 2009 at 4:35
Am I the only one to realize Amity Shlaes is an anagram for Aliases Myth and also as well A Sly Atheism? I think we have a MOLE! Have you ever seen Amity Shlaes and A. Smiley Shat in the same room? I think not, also. Like such.
Doctorb said,
May 7, 2009 at 10:50
In all fairness, Eric Cantor (R-VA) is not “busy lying constantly”. It’s only when he speaks, apparently.